A study has found that using a combination of ground-based and space-based telescopes would significantly increase the discovery rate of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). NASA is legally required to identify at least 90% of asteroids that are 140+ metres in size and that could pose a danger to Earth. When the law was passed by the US Congress a decade ago, the space agency was given a deadline of 2020 to reach that target; however,

A study conducted by an international research group has found that asteroids meet their fate much farther from the Sun than previously thought. For decades, astronomers believed that the majority of near-Earth asteroids came to the same fiery end: somewhere along the line, they would plunge into the Sun and be destroyed. Now scientists have reached a different conclusion: most NEAs break up long before they reach our central star.